Homer Simpson Archives - Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources

Never let it be said that Homer J. Simpson doesn’t have a social conscience. Also, never let it be said that he passed up an opportunity to stick it to Ned Flanders.

Responding to the viral sensation with impressive speed — this isn’t South Park, you know; animation typically takes time — Fox has released a video of Homer embracing the spirit, if not the actual title, of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. All right, maybe a glass of water isn’t in keeping with the spirit.

However, in grand Simpsons tradition, even that doesn’t turn out well for him …

No matter how many Simpsons T-shirts, posters, figurines and lunchboxes you own, you’ll never be as big of a fan as Lee Weir is.

The 27-year-old New Zealander is a bit of a Homer Simpson devotee. Well, maybe he’s more than a bit, considering he holds the Guinness Worlds Record title for Most Tattoos of the Same Cartoon Character Tattooed on the Body. Because, yes, that’s a thing — so much of a thing that it requires “tattoo” to be mentioned twice.

As Man of Steel, with its spiritual themes, soars toward a $590 million worldwide box-office haul, the Vatican’s official newspaper has turned its attention to the faiths of other prominent superheroes, asking in the headline, “Is the Hulk Catholic?”

The answer, according to L’Osservatore Romano writer Gaetano Vallini, is yes, and he points to the wedding of Bruce Banner and Betty Ross as the most concrete evidence of this. “Bruce Banner, the incredible green man, in fact married his beloved Betty Ross in a church and a Catholic priest presided at the ceremony,” he writes in the full-page article. “There are other indications dispersed among the hundreds of comic strips dedicated to him that are said to unequivocally reveal his faith.”

Of course, Adherents.com, the go-to source for the religious affiliations of comic-book characters (and other figures, both real and fictional), lists the Hulk as a lapsed Catholic, but the website appears preoccupied with the Ultimate and live-action TV versions of the character. A final determination may require Pope Francis to intercede.